Theft-hit Viman Nagar residents ask police to step up vigilance

Residents say despite providing CCTV footage, cops unable to make any progress in two burglary cases

Local residents in Viman Nagar are a worried lot. They feel Viman Nagar is no longer the safe and peaceful place it used to be. After a spate of housebreaks last week, residents said the city police should take more precautions and increase the number of check points at the entry and exit points in Viman Nagar to curb crime. On the watch: The CCTV camera installed in the Eden Garden Society. Pic/Krunal Gosavi

A memorandum in this regard was handed over to the Commissioner of Police Meeran Borwankar on Tuesday by members of Viman Nagar Development Council and former MLA Chandrakant Chhajed. In the wake of increased vehicular traffic, additional patrolling has also been demanded."We have been demanding that the members of the Peace Committee be empowered by the city police so that we can help the force in identifying problem areas and patrolling the area," said Shams Mithani, secretary of VNDC.

An aggrieved Mansha Ramani, chairperson of VNDC, said, "A year ago, my house was burgled. Goods worth Rs 24 lakh were cleaned out. The police have managed to recover only Rs 8,000 worth of goods; there has been no progress in the case so far."

Arti Thacker, chairman of Eden Garden Society, said, "There were two thefts in the society. This is the third time in the last two and half years, flats in the society were broken into. Our society which houses 315 flats has installed CCTV cameras, and we have shared the CCTV footage with the police. They are yet to take action on them, or reveal the progress of the case to the residents."

Navnath Dandagwhal, chairman of Lunkad Queensland, said, "Our 196-flat strong society has been hit by three incidents of housebreaks recently. An ad-hoc meeting was conducted by the members wherein we decided to install CCTV cameras.

The other sideThe Vimantal police are often burdened with non-stop VIP bandobasts as every other day some VIP lands or leaves from the Lohegaon Airport. Senior Police Inspector P R Saha of Airport police station, said, "This year 18 thefts were reported and of them 10 have been detected." Saha said the police station had six patrolling vehicles which patrolled the area continuously. He said the police had conducted several meetings with various societies in the jurisdiction of the police station. He said most of the societies had not installed CCTV cameras despite several appeals to them. "In addition to this, the security guards deployed by the society are often lax and do not do their job properly. Saha said he had seen the CCTV footage shared by the Eden Garden Society in Viman Nagar. "It may be recalled that two flats in the society were broken into on Saturday afternoon. One gang must be behind all the burglaries," said Saha.